Artificial Meat

Artificial Meat

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
Artificial meat.

As if ranchers did not have it hard enough already... A new battle is brewing between the Beef industry and Meat grown inside a laboratory...

Scientists like Dr Mark Post have already begun to engineer muscle fibers in the lab and says, he thinks - not long from now - people are going to have lab grown beef on their plate.

Meanwhile, the US Cattlemen's Association has filed a 15-page petition to the USDA asking the agency to strictly define "meat" and "beef" as animals raised and slaughtered.

The group argues that lab-grown meat does not meet that definition, and that labeling cultured products as "meat" will confuse consumers.

By filing an official motion, the country's ranchers are showing cultured meat startups that they are prepared to fight for that definition.

Proponents of meat-mimicking foods like cultured meat and plant-based "meat" argue that it's more environmentally friendly than raising traditional livestock. Globally, traditional animal farming accounts for about 18% of greenhouse emissions, uses 47,000 square miles of land annually, and exhausts 70% of the world's water.

As startups improve their meat alternatives, the debate over what can legally be considered meat will likely continue to intensify.

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